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Today in Austria: A round-up of the latest news on Tuesday

Find out what's going on today in Austria with The Local's short roundup of the news.

Published: 23 March 2021 09:19 CET
Updated: 23 March 2021 15:20 CET
Sebastian Kurz
JOE KLAMAR / AFP)

Regional measures to contain pandemic in east Austria to be discussed today

Known as the ‘Eastern Summit’, a crisis meeting will be held today with the Ministry of Health and the federal states of Vienna, Lower Austria and Burgenland to discuss the coronavirus situation in east Austria and possible regional measures, the APA news agency reports.

In the other federal states, however, no further tightening or relaxation are planned.

Austria’s federal and state government met on Monday to discuss the next steps in the pandemic, but decided to maintain the status quo, despite a rise in infections and hospitalisations in east Austria, as The Local reported yesterday.

SEE ALSO: Austria to extend coronavirus lockdown measures

Highest ever coronavirus numbers in intensive care in Vienna

The seven-day incidence, or the number of new infections with the coronavirus in the past seven days per 100,000 inhabitants, is 240.4. The number is now highest in Vienna (321.9), followed by Salzburg (300.3). The value is lowest in Vorarlberg (66.7), Carinthia (187.1) and Styria (187.3).

The Ministry of Health and the Ministry of the Interior has reported 2,412 new coronavirus cases within the last 24 hours. There are currently 1,983 people in hospital treatment due to the coronavirus, 437 of them in intensive care units.

In Vienna, 162 people were being treated in intensive care on Monday for coronavirus, more than at the height of the second wave in autumn.

Kurz will not be getting ‘one extra jab’

Austrian newspapers Der Standard and Wiener Zeitung have picked up on a report in the Financial Times, according to which the EU does not want to grant Austria any extra vaccination doses as part of a distribution of 10 million additional BioNTech/Pfizer doses throughout the EU.

The FT quotes an unnamed EU official saying “Kurz will not be getting one extra jab”.

Austrian Chancellor Sebastian Kurz, along with five other central and eastern European Union heads of government, had previously urged Brussels to find a “correction mechanism” to fix what they called the unfair distribution of coronavirus vaccines within the bloc.

FPÖ accuses Greens of being behind Ibiza video

The leader of Austria’s right wing FPÖ parliamentary group Christian Hafenecker believes Austria’s Green Party were involved in the publication of the Ibiza video in 2019.

The secretly filmed video caused a political scandal which brought down Austria’s coalition government after two FPÖ politicians were shown discussing circumventing the law on party funding and taking over the media with the alleged niece of a Russian oligarch in Ibiza.

The Austrian newspapers Die Presse and Der Standard cover the latest developments.

READ MORE: Austrian far right leader resigns over Ibiza affair

Note: A previous version of this story said it was Monday. No, it was in fact Tuesday. But we could’ve sworn it felt like Monday. 

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WORK PERMITS

‘Tinder for jobs’: EU’s new job scheme for non-EU workers moves step closer

The creation of a common EU Talent Pool platform, in which non-EU nationals can register their profiles and find jobs across the 27 member states, has moved a step closer to reality.

Published: 14 June 2024 10:15 CEST
'Tinder for jobs': EU's new job scheme for non-EU workers moves step closer

At a meeting of the Justice and Home Affairs Council in Luxembourg, the EU Council, which includes representatives of each of the 27 member states, agreed a joint position on the proposal, referred to as “Tinder for jobs” by EU Home Affairs Commissioner Ylva Johansson. 

The Council will now begin negotiating with the European Parliament to agree on the final legislative text on the proposal, which is part of the EU’s broader skills and talent mobility package. 

What’s the scheme?

“This will not replace anything but it will be an additional tool to make recruitment from outside the EU easier,” Johannes Kleis, a press officer at the European Council, told The Local. “It should help to overcome some barriers that employers might find if they look for staff outside the EU, and this portal will be an easier entry point for third country jobseekers.” 

In a press release announcing the agreement, the Council said it hoped to reconcile principles of fair recruitment with a secure and comprehensive migration system while also “reinforcing the position of the European Union in the global race for talent”. 

READ ALSO: The new scheme to help non-EU nationals find jobs in Europe

The EU’s Home Affairs Commission Ylva Johansson hsa described the Talent Portal as ‘Tinder for jobs’. Photo: Simon Wohlfahrt/AFP

The idea is to set up an EU-wide online platform where jobseekers from outside the EU can set up profiles detailing their skills, qualifications, work experience and which languages they speak. Employers from all participating member states will then be able to post up jobs to the platform. 

Only job vacancies involving skills or professions where member states or the EU as a whole have declared a labour shortage will be listed on the platform. 

The Talent Pool will be designed to help EU employers overcoming some of the challenges of recruiting internationally by helping ensure the “accuracy, quality and comparability” of the foreign applicants’ qualifications and skills. It will also help applicants overcome some of their current difficulties in “accessing and understanding information about recruitment processes” as well as reducing costs. 

The Talent Pool is not intended to set up a common work permit system, with anyone who gets a job through the platform still having to apply for a regular work permit in the country where they find a job. 

The Council has added several new proposals to the system put forward by the European Commission in November, setting up a withdrawal procedure through which member states can leave the Talent Pool after giving six month’s notice.

The Council also wants to empower member states to be able to decide whether individual employers can post up vacancies, whether private employment agencies can do so, or whether only state-run national employment agencies can do so.   

What happens next?

“We’re at the beginning,” Kleis said. “The European Parliament and the Council will now have to sit together to agree on the legal text, and that will happen after the summer. From the Council side, this is the first step but the legislation has yet to be agreed on. So there a lot more hoops to jump through.”  

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